The people and governments of the French, U., Vietnam all had different motives for their involvement in the Vietnam War in the years between 1945 and 1975. The French participation was on the basis of restoring its own power over Indochina. The U.S can blame their exaggerated and misinterpreted fears and hopes of its presidents, who seemed to have made one bad decision after another. North Vietnam was for the most part involved due to their Leader Ho Chi Ming centering his core beliefs on patriotism and communism as a way to "save his country" (Harrison). .
FRANCE.
The French never tried to hide their intentions of holding their prewar control over Indochina. In the Second World War the Japanese invaded, and Vietnamese nationalists fought beside French troops to defeat the Japanese. After the victory over Japan, the Vietnamese expected to gain their independence - but the French remained as colonial masters. .
On September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh the Viet Minh leader, addressed a group gathered in Hanoi, with these words: "We hold truths that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among these are life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." (http://www.cowac.org) Ho also declared the following: "We, the members of the Provisional Government representing the entire people of Vietnam, declare that we shall from now on have no connections with imperialist France; we consider null and void all the treaties France has signed concerning Vietnam, and we hereby cancel all the privileges that the French arrogated to themselves on our territory" (http://www.cowac.org). Within days, Emperor Bao Dai abdicated, promising to support the new government as a private citizen. Many Vietnamese troops now turned to fighting the French. In 1954 the French were defeated in the north at Dien Bien Phu by the Viet Minh, but in the south, Vietnamese leaders did not want to be part of the Pro-Communist system being set up by the north.
